From childhood to adulthood, although there has always been an older brother who has always been a burden on the second prince, he has never suffered any hardship. Although the queen mother prefers the eldest brother, he is also her own son after all, so she naturally holds him in the palm of her hand. Therefore, he has never had such an experience as being punished to kneel for making mistakes. Even if he did something wrong, the queen mother would at most say a few words to him lightly.
However, at this moment, he was kneeling on the freezing cold ground in the cold winter, wearing only a thin cloth. After all, there was a warm charcoal stove in the carriage, and the carriage was covered with thick fences, so it was not cold at all. If the guards had not covered him with a thick cloak and stood around him to block the wind, he doubted whether he would be frozen to death.
Kneeling on the ground, the coldness spread up along the thin skin bit by bit, and soon spread all over the body, so that the whole person trembled, and the lips seemed to have lost all feeling. The second prince didn't know where he got the willpower to kneel there. He didn't know how long he had to kneel before his father was willing to see him. He only knew that he had to endure it.
Whether it was because his mother couldn't bear to see him suffer like this and came to plead for mercy, or because the empress dowager felt pity for her grandson and sent someone to say a few words, or because his father finally softened his heart - even though he knew that the hope of this was not great, he could only gamble on those possibilities!
He didn't know how long he had been waiting. Just when he was about to freeze and become numb to the point of losing consciousness, he finally heard Liu Feng's familiar voice: "The Emperor has ordered that the Second Prince be brought in."
The anger that had been lingering in his heart finally came out, and the second prince thought he would collapse to the ground, but in the end, he could not move at all. He only knew that his arms were grabbed by someone, and then he was carried inside. When he entered the Qianqing Palace, the warmth that came to him suddenly enveloped his whole body, and a bowl of hot ginger soup was poured into his mouth. Only then did he feel alive again.
"From childhood to adulthood, you have always been half-hearted and gave up halfway in everything you did. This is actually the most persevering time you have ever had. Tell me, what is the important matter that is so urgent and beneficial to the country and the people that you came to see me for?"
The second prince shuddered suddenly when his father's voice suddenly rang in his ears, and then he suddenly woke up. He raised his still numb head and stared at the figure of the emperor in casual clothes in front of him. After a long while, he whispered: "Father, I know that I did something wrong before and committed a serious crime. I don't expect you to forgive me, but..."
His tongue seemed to be frozen, and he finally spoke more fluently. He quickly pushed away Liu Feng who was serving him, stood up shakily, staggered two steps and knelt on the ground again. He had no need to pretend, he was already in tears.
"Although I did something wrong, when I went to investigate Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu's weaving and dyeing workshop, I thought that if I found out that they had made something good without telling anyone, I would snatch it away and present it to my father!"
He suddenly shouted in a voice that was almost a roar: "All under heaven belongs to the king, and all the people are his subjects. This world and its people all belong to the emperor, so the best things should also belong to the emperor! But I don't know how my eldest brother got that new spinning machine, and instead of presenting it to the emperor, he took it to the wealthy merchants in Jiangnan... What is he trying to do!"